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The 7 Most Beneficial CBD Discoveries In History

There seem to be four groups of people in this world regarding cannabidiol (CBD). People either believe it has no beneficial health purposes, people don’t know what it is, people think it’s “too good to be true”, or people see the benefits of it and believe in its ability to better people’s individual lives. While no plant, herb, or medicine can heal everything, there is plenty of evidence showing major benefits of CBD. So, what are the eight most beneficial discoveries ever made about its medical value? These are in no particular order, but are all important to the continued study of CBD and its benefits to people.

Seizures

One of the most well studied benefits of CBD is that of it’s anti-convulsive properties. It has been shown to lower the seizure threshold in many people. As this study from PubMed explains, CBD not only reduces seizure severity, but also showed that CBD significantly decreased the percentage of rodents that were experiencing the most complex and severe seizures. Additionally, “CBD (≥ 10 mg/kg) significantly decreased the percentage mortality as a result of seizures.”

In conclusion of this study, it is said that “the evidence strongly supports CBD as a therapeutic candidate for a diverse range of human epilepsies.”

Alzheimer’s Disease

Alzheimer’s Disease is the most common age-related neurodegenerative disorder known to man. Another study from PubMed describes how it works for those struggling with this disease. It states, “Cannabidiol, a non-psychoactive marijuana component, has been recently proposed as an antioxidant neuroprotective agent in neurodegenerative diseases. Moreover, it has been shown to rescue PC12 cells from toxicity induced by Abeta peptide.”

The study also showed that CBD inhibits hyperphosphyrylation of the tau protein in Abeta-stimulated PC12 neuronal cells. While this sounds super complex, and it is, the important part to know is that CBD helps to slow, or stop, the most representative hallmarks in alzheimer’s disease.

The study concludes by stating, “These results provide new molecular insight regarding the neuroprotective effect of cannabidiol and suggest its possible role in the pharmacological management of AD, especially in view of its low toxicity in humans.”

Pain Relief

In a study from 2015, CBD was tested to see if it showed synergistic effects (a greater effect when combined with another agent, then when tested separately) when combined with morphine. When tested alone, morphine “produced antinociceptive effects in all three models of acute nociception, whereas CBD alone produced antinociception only in the acetic acid-stimulated stretching assay.” The study does claim that CBD and morphine did in fact produce synergistic effects in reversing acetic acid-stimulated stretching behavior.

This study concluded that these results “suggest that distinct mechanisms of action underlie the interactions between CBD and morphine in the three different behavioral assays and that the choice of appropriate combination therapies for the treatment of acute pain conditions may depend on the underlying pain type and stimulus modality.”

Anti-Tumor Medicine

Cancer is one of the most well known problems in America. There are endless theories about what can cause cancer, and how to prevent it. However, there are not very many options for treating it once a person has developed it. This study from 2015 discusses how CBD works as an anti-tumor medicine. Before discussing CBD specifically, this study mentions that “CB1 and CB2 receptor agonists can act as direct antitumor agents in a variety of aggressive cancers.”

When animals were tested, CBD was shown to inhibit the progression of several different types of cancer including, breast cancer, lung cancer, prostate cancer, colon cancer, and glioblastoma. This study discusses two major points. The first is the “mechanisms by which CBD, and other plant-derived cannabinoids inefficient at activating cannabinoid receptors, inhibit tumor cell viability, invasion, metastasis, angiogenesis, and the stem-like potential of cancer cells.”

The second is the “ability of non-psychoactive cannabinoids to induce autophagy and apoptotic-mediated cancer cell death, and enhance the activity of first-line agents commonly used in cancer treatment.” In other words, CBD can cause bad cells to consume themselves, or it can cause good cells to tag bad ones for scheduled death, causing them to “commit suicide”.

Anxiety

There are numerous studies showing that CBD may be an effective treatment for those with anxiety. Most people fear public speaking more than they do death. The first study dissects how CBD reduces the anxiety that is stimulated by public speaking. It states:

“Pretreatment with CBD significantly reduced anxiety, cognitive impairment and discomfort in their speech performance, and significantly decreased alert in their anticipatory speech. The placebo group presented higher anxiety, cognitive impairment, discomfort, and alert levels when compared with the control group as assessed with the Visual Analogue Mood Scale (VAMS). The Negative Self-Statement Scale (SSPS-N) scores evidenced significant increases during the testing of placebo group that was almost abolished in the CBD group. No significant differences were observed between CBD and HC in SSPS-N scores or in the cognitive impairment, discomfort, and alert factors of VAMS. The increase in anxiety induced by the Simulation Public Speaking Test (SPST) on subjects with Social Anxiety Disorder (SAD) was reduced with the use of CBD, resulting in a similar response as the healthy control.”

In short, the study found that pretreatment with CBD help reduce the anxiety, cognitive impairment, and discomfort of public speaking significantly in people who have a phobia of this.

PTSD

In a second study related to anxiety and PTSD, CBD was studied to see what impact, if any, it had on people suffering from PTSD. In this study, 48 participants were involved with a double-blind study involving colored boxes and electrical shocks. Some of the boxes were electrified, and others weren’t. Then, two days later, the participants were exposed to the boxes again. Some of the participants were given CBD, and some a placebo. The study concluded that these findings, “provide the first evidence that CBD can enhance consolidation of extinction learning in humans and suggest that CBD may have potential as an adjunct to extinction-based therapies for anxiety disorders.”

Substance Abuse

Substance abuse is often described as one of the hardest things to fight off. People often try multiple times to “shake a habit” and to no avail. In this study by PubMed, it was examined whether CBD would inhibit the reward-facilitating effect of Morphine.

“Rats were prepared with a stimulating electrode into the medial forebrain bundle (MFB), and a guide cannula into the dorsal raphe (microinjection experiments), and were trained to respond for electrical brain stimulation. A low dose of cannabidiol did not affect the reinforcing efficacy of brain stimulation, whereas higher doses significantly elevated the threshold frequency required for MFB ICSS. Both cocaine and morphine lowered ICSS thresholds. Cannabidiol inhibited the reward-facilitating effect of morphine, but not cocaine.”

So, in short, these results suggest that CBD does interfere with brain reward mechanisms that are responsible for the expression of the acute reinforcing properties within opioids. This indicates that CBD may be useful in reducing the rewarding effects of opioids.

Tisha Casida (in a Hemp Field of Colorado) Founder of That's Natural! and a staunch advocate of Food & Medicine Freedom. She has owned her own small business for nine years, and as a former candidate for Congress, has first-hand knowledge of policy issues and solutions for Coloradans.